In a goal to increase transparency with the city of Iola’s purchasing policies, city council members have made amendments to existing procedures — not without some motivation from city employees.
When he took the position of city administrator in 2011, Carl Slaugh said the city did not have any policies for employees to follow when they purchased goods for the city.
With a new administrator and council in place, the two tackled the way goods and services are purchased.
In April, council members looked to Nixa, Mo., for examples and more or less adapted their procedures.
That led to a substantial amount of paperwork that many department heads were not accustomed to carrying out, said Corey Schinstock, assistant city administrator.
“It took the department heads longer to do their jobs,” Schinstock said. Under the changes, bids were required for any purchases over $200 and were subject to review by the city council before bids could be openend.
Schinstock said these changes added two weeks to the process of purchasing.
“You can’t buy anything for less than $200 these days,” Schinstock said. “It was almost like wasting two weeks.”
Slaugh said some department heads and city employees voiced concerns over the new policy, which led the council to take a second look at the changes they had made.
Changes to the new purchasing policy were brought before the council in November, where council members agreed to raise the dollar amount for bid requirements to $1,000. Under the revised guidelines, city employees are no longer required to open bids during city council meetings.
Schinstock said the new revisions allow departments to save the waiting time between meetings, and also gives vendors a chance to be present when the bid selections are announced.
“It’s going to be a lot more functional for us,” Schinstock said. “The supervisors are given the responsibility to do the best by the city, and they have adjusted fairly well.”
City Clerk Roxanne Hutton said the guidelines adopted in April led to many of the city’s purchases being made outside of city limits.
“Past councils have always encouraged us to buy local,” Hutton said. “The bidding process has changed some of that.”
She said specifically the purchase of rock and paper in the city has changed — supplies are now being bought by non-local suppliers. She said this has given the city the opportunity to save money on the bottom line, but that does not include the extra time spent on paperwork and the bidding process.
Council member David Toland brought a provision before the council to give an advantage to local businesses during the bidding process. The provision was voted down by the council.
Hutton said the city has not been spending much in recent weeks, but she hopes to see positive changes from the most recent revisions to the policies.
Overall, Slaugh said he believes it is important for the city to adopt the formal guidelines, but it is also important to give employees the flexibility they need to get their work finished.
“All of the department heads were very conscientious before the policies were adopted,” Slaugh said. “But I’m not sure it hasn’t all been healthy for us.”
Slaugh said city employees will be able to function under the new policies, and stressed the fact that the policies were not drafted because of employee misconduct, but to provide necessary safeguards.
“Ideally, if we could trust everyone completely, there would be no purchasing policy,” Slaugh said.
City looks to simplify purchasing policies
